Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Phyllis Tickle and the Great Emergence

Author,
speaker and theologian Phyllis Tickle died today (Sept. 22). She had been
diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. It was my privilege to interview her
twice, and meet her twice as well. Although we were never close friends, we stayed in
contact from 2009 until early August, when she was no longer able to answer
e-mail. In one of our last exchanges, we talked about how Tony Campolo had “come
out” in favour of gay marriage and accepting gay people into the church. “Tony is a good man, married to a good
woman,” she wrote of his decision. “It just may be that she wore him down, but
whatever works, works. Let us be grateful.”

Below find my first interview with her, prior to her visit to
Winnipeg in
2009.

Declining church membership, the breaking down of
denominational loyalty and barriers, the rise of new "emergent"
churches that blend ancient rituals, litanies and hymns together with
contemporary forms of worship and calls for social action--something is
happening out there. But what is it? And why is it happening now?

What's happening is as old as religion itself, says Phyllis Tickle, author of
the book The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why. In an interview with Free Press columnist John Longhurst, she explored the link
between the church's history of change and the new face of the church today .

What is the
Great Emergence?

Tickle: The Great Emergence refers
to a monumental phenomenon in our world today that affects every part of our
lives-religiously, socially, culturally, intellectually, politically and
economically. The world is changing rapidly, and in so many ways, that we can
hardly keep up with it.

In the religious sphere, many people have observed that these kind of changes
seem to happen every 500 years-a period of upheaval followed by a period of
settling down, then codification, and then upheaval again because we do not
like to be codified.

For Western Christianity, the Protestant, or Great Reformation was about five
hundred years ago. Five hundred before that you hit the Great Schism, when the
church divided between east and west. Five hundred years earlier you have Pope
Gregory the Great, who helped bring the church out of the dark ages.

During these 500-year episodes the church has what Anglican Bishop Mark Dyer
calls a giant rummage sale--it takes a look at its old stuff and decides to
sell what it no longer needs. We are going through this kind of giant sale
today.

What happens to the church during this
giant rummage sale?

Tickle: During these times of
rearrangement and upheaval, the institutionalized church throws off things that
are restricting its growth. When that mighty upheaval happens, history shows
that at least three things always happen.

First, a new, more vital form of Christianity emerges. Second, the organized
expression of Christianity, which up until then had been the dominant one, is
reconstituted into a more pure and less ossified expression of its former self.
During the Protestant Reformation, both the reformers, and those they are
reacting against, ended up being better churches.

Finally, every time the incrustations of an overly established Christianity is
broken open, the faith has spread dramatically, thereby increasing the range
and depth of the church's reach. Following the Protestant Reformation,
Christianity was spread over far more of the earth's territories than had ever
been true in the past.

Every religion is subject to becoming encrusted and institutionalized over
time. It appears to take the Abrahamic faiths—Christianity Judaism and Islam—about 500 years before
people rebel and seek reform. When that happens, new and vigorous expressions
of faith break out, breaking the molds that have held them and scattering the
pieces.

How is this change evidencing itself in
the church today?

Tickle: Evangelicalism has lost much
of its credibility and much of its spiritual energy of late, in much the same
way that mainline Protestantism has. In their place is a new approach called
the EmergentChurch. This is a new gathering of
believers that is not based on traditional denominations, creeds or beliefs.

It is a mix of Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, the
mainline Protestant churches and the liturgical tradition, together with an
emphasis on head and heart-not just one or the other-along with the deep
commitment to social justice.

This new style of Western Christianity is not hierarchal or based on a certain
doctrinal system. It's more about community and conversation, not about a set
of beliefs and creeds. They are incarnational, not creedal. They are not
interested in structures and hierarchies and buildings.

Does this mean the death of traditional
mainline denominations?

Tickle: No! Just as the Protestant
Reformation didn't spell the end of the Roman Catholic Church--it emerged
stronger and more vibrant--mainline denominations won't disappear. They are
losing their dominant position, but they can use this experience to reform
themselves and become more relevant in the world.

How is this current upheaval different
from what the church has experienced before?

Tickle: For the first time we are
doing it in an age of instant media. The Internet makes it very easy to talk to
each other across national and denominational boundaries in a way that wasn't
possible before. But the Internet isn't causing this change; it is enabling it,
just as the printing press assisted the growth and development of the
Protestant Reformation.

E-mail, the Web and social media are allowing people to become connected in new
ways. They allow this new form of church to be a self-organizing system-it is
not dependent on central offices and structures. It's a leveler, it's
egalitarian.

What are people looking for during this
Great Emergence?

Tickle: People are looking for a new
and different encounter with God. The strength of Protestantism was its rationalism; it
took religion to the head. But today people want religion that also touches
their hearts. It's not anti-intellectual; mind and reason are still very
important. But people want more than just an intellectual challenge. They want
something that moves them emotionally, as well. It is bringing the heart and
the head together.

One characteristic of this emergent view of the church is a return to, and
recovery of, liturgy and connectedness to church history. Many Western
Christians have acted like the first 1,500 years of the church never
happened-they start in the 1500s with Martin Luther and go from there. But
there is a rich tradition of church fathers and mothers who lived faithfully
and thoughtfully between those two events. The emergent church is going back to
that time and finding deep meaning as they use those old prayers and litanies
in worship, along with things like the Book of Common Prayer.

How might Christians respond to these
changes?

Tickle: We need to respond
prayerfully and carefully. This change isn't happening all at once-it will
occur over many years. Like previous social, political, economic and religious
upheavals, how we should respond is not always clear on a day-to-day basis.

It was the same during the Protestant Reformation, a
time filled with reformers, protestors, puritans, pietists and others. We have
to remember that it's not as if Protestantism came forth in one perfect or
cohesive package; they didn't always know where things were going, or the
consequences of their decisions and actions. Yet it all came together to create
this new construct we have called Protestantism, the very thing that is under
challenge today.

How do you feel about the changes you
are seeing today?

Tickle: I am optimistic about the future of the church. For me, Christianity
has never been more alive and vigorous than it is right here and right now. The
kingdom of God is coming in many forms and many
places these days. All I can say is: "Thanks be to God!"